The day after race at the Paris Games, Noah Lyles set his sights not on more titles and records but on a more fashion-oriented goal; having a pair of trainers named after himself. “I want my own shoe. I want my own trainer.
Dead serious,” he told reporters. Not a trainer for fellow athletes to run in, he emphasised, but a shoe with the same legendary potential as an Adidas Stan Smith (named after the former US tennis champion) or Nike’s Air Jordan (the namesake of basketball player Michael Jordan). It’s a testament to just how seriously as a fashion star who also happens to be a world-class sprinter.
“The most important thing is running fast but it is cool to run fast and look good,” Usain Bolt once said. Now Lyles is reinventing what it means to look good as an athlete. It goes far beyond having the snazziest tracksuit in the line-up: he’s got the fashion world at his feet.
Most athletes populate their Instagram feed with slightly dull training updates but you could be excused for landing on Lyles’ page and assuming you were scrolling through photos posted by the latest big fashion influencer. His birthday last month was marked with a photoshoot at the Barbican for which he wore a Louis Vuitton shirt, his nails emblazoned with the word “icon”. Earlier in the summer, he posed alongside Snoop Dogg wearing a sharp Gucci x Adidas suit with Dr Martens loafers and Fendi sunglasses.
“Noah’s style is completely representative of who he is,” says Maya Bruney.